Jerry Chen’s Expanded Definition of Authentication

TO: Prof. Ellis
FROM: Jerry Chen
DATE: 3/26/2021
SUBJECT: Expanded Definition of Authentication

Introduction

As we all know, we are human and unique, and all of us have our own way to understand and learn, as well as the way we definite something new to us. Somehow, the different ways of how we definite something new usually end up having various types of meaning. The purpose of this document is to explore the definition of the term that I chose and make it easier for others to understand regardless of the ways that we learn differently. The term that I am defining for a better understanding is “authentication”. As to further explore the definition of the term “authentication”, I am going to discuss the general definitions from my research sources follow by the context that the item being used in. I am also provided the working definition of the term and how it related to the network security field.

Definitions

According to the author (Ince, 2014), “The process of convincing a network that a person is who he or she claims to be. This follows the process of identification. Devices that are used for authentication include passwords, personal identification numbers, smart cards, and biometric identification systems.” This definition generally shows that authentication is a process to identify the identity before allowing admission to access to something, which the secret word or code needs to be correctly matched with the one that set up by the owner previously, otherwise will get declined by the authentication process.

To have a better understanding of the term “authentication”, the following definition also provided a better sense of what authentication is. According to the authors (Butterfield et al., 2016), “A process by which subjects, normal users, establish their identity to a system. This may be effected by the use of a password or possession of a physical device, e.g. a coded token. In reverse authentication, the object is required to authenticate to the subject, e.g. to establish user confidence regarding the object, before sensitive information is entered into a system.” This definition illustrates that authentication is the process by which the users have to provide the exact credentials they set up previously before they can gain access to their information. The purpose of setting up the credentials is to protect unauthorized access to their information in which needs authentication method get involve to makes it fully effective.

In the book “What is authentication?” by Rosencrance (2018). “Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is, in fact, who or what it declares itself to be. Authentication technology provides access control for systems by checking to see if a user’s credentials match the credentials in a database of authorized users or in a data authentication server.” This definition also defines as authentication is the process to identify the identity by asking the users to enter the secure secret word or codes that they set up beforehand. All of these definitions are way similar as they are all defined as authentication is the process to identify the identity by obtaining the right credentials and acknowledged the request if the credentials are matched with the information stored in the cloud or database.

Context

Authentication is widely used in the network security field as it can control who can have access to the credential information within the company in which sort by the role assigned by the one who has that authority. According to the article “Implementation of an Advanced authentication method within Microsoft Active DIRECTORY network services” (Kadlec et al., 2010), “Authentication is the process by which end users identify themselves to a network and customized access capabilities are given based on the role they serve in the organization.” This quote describes the term authentication as best used in the network field. Every organization has its own policy and ranking. Every ranking has its own authority to access certain levels of credential information of the company, where authentication is used in place to identify the accessibility of the employees.

There is another source of reference found to aid in providing more details of the term used in the field. According to Grimes (2019), “The primary reason for authentication is to confirm a subject’s ability to access protected resources (e.g., security domains, files, folders, sites, services). The process determines whether the subject is who they say they are and whether they can prove it.” This quote provided more details to support the previous quote, which proved that the use of authentication in the field is to identify the accessibility of each person who claims to have access to something.

Working Definition

As I am majoring in Computer System and track in networking security, the term authentication is like nothing new to me. I am familiar with this term because it plays a huge role in the networking field. Based on the discussion of the definitions and context of the term used listed above, we can conclude that the main definition of the term authentication is the process to validate the identity. Network administrators always use the authentication method to ensure the safety of the software or systems by validating the users who try to login in by the credentials they enter. Authentication can also definite as simply as the way we unlock our phones, we must enter the right passwords before it allows us to have access to our phones.

References

Ince, D. (2019). A Dictionary of the Internet (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Butterfield, A., Ngondi, G. E., & Kerr, A. (2016). A Dictionary of Computer Science (7 ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199688975.001.0001

Rosencrance, L. (2018, May 29). What is authentication? Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/authentication

Kadlec, J., Jaros, D., & Kuchta, R. (2010). Implementation of an Advanced authentication method within Microsoft Active DIRECTORY network services. 2010 6th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications. http://doi:10.1109/icwmc.2010.48

Grimes, R. A. (2020). Hacking Multifactor Authentication. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.